Good friend and fellow journalist Dana Batnag of Jiji Press has started blogging.

In her latest post, Dana focuses on the penchant of both government and media in (mis-)reporting raw information on the number of casualties in disasters and calamities, just like the gory aftermath of typhoon “Frank”:

I do not understand this need to report the figures of the dead and the missing in the first few hours of an emergency, knowing that the figures are often wrong and based on sketchy reports.

People need to know the dangers involved: tsunami, flooding, tornadoes. But what good would it do them to believe that 200 died only to find out later that only 100 were killed?

Dana has long wanted to blog and we’ve talked about it. It was only fairly recently that she found time and inspiration to go on with it.

She said she chose “Between the li(n)es” as blog title because she wanted to contribute to truth-telling among Filipinos especially amid the lies and deceit that mark official propaganda that pervade the airwaves and dominate the print media.

Dana is now taking up Law at UP. She was also reelected recently as member of the board of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.